John Mellencamp returns to Springfield for March 23 concert at UIS

Steven Spearie, Springfield State Journal- Register
Updated ·2 min read
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Rock and Roll Hall of Famer and activist John Mellencamp will bring his “Live and In Person 2024" tour to the Sangamon Auditorium on the University of Illinois Springfield campus on March 23.

Tickets go on sale to the public at 10 a.m. Friday.

The tour starts March 8 in Rochester, New York, and includes a March 27 date at the Coronado Performing Arts Center in Rockford.

The Seymour, Indiana, native, whose hits "Pink Houses," "Jack and Diane," "Small Town," "Hurts So Good" and "Rain on the Scarecrow" captured the grit of the Midwest, last played in Springfield at the 2017 Illinois State Fair.

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John Mellencamp at last month's Farm Aid 2023 in Noblesville, Indiana. Mellencamp returns to Springfield for a March 23 concert.
John Mellencamp at last month's Farm Aid 2023 in Noblesville, Indiana. Mellencamp returns to Springfield for a March 23 concert.

In 2016, Mellencamp's "Plain Spoken" tour stopped in at UIS.

Mellencamp, 72, founded Farm Aid as a benefit for American farmers among widespread foreclosures in 1985 with fellow musicians Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson and Neil Young. Later that year, the first Farm Aid concert at Memorial Stadium at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign featured Billy Joel, Bonnie Raitt and Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, among others.

Last month's Farm Aid concert at Ruoff Center in Noblesville, Indiana, brought back Mellencamp, Nelson, and Young, along with Farm Aid board members Dave Matthews and Margo Price and other acts like Ann Wilson of Heart, Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats and the String Cheese Incident.

Since its inception, Farm Aid has raised more than $70 million to help farmers.

Bruce Springsteen and John Mellencamp paired for several songs on Mellencamp's 2022 album, "Strictly a One-Eyed Jack."
Bruce Springsteen and John Mellencamp paired for several songs on Mellencamp's 2022 album, "Strictly a One-Eyed Jack."

Last year's album “Strictly a One-Eyed Jack” (Republic Records) featured duets with Bruce Springsteen on “Wasted Days" and “Did You Say Such a Thing." Springsteen also played guitar on "Life Full of Rain" in sessions at Mellencamp's Belmont Mall recording studio in Belmont, Indiana.

Mellencamp’s 2023 tour, backing his new record "Orpheus Descending," involved scenes from classic movies like “Hud” and “The Grapes of Wrath” and an elaborate set filled with antique-style lights and mannequins of film characters. It was a chance for fans to “walk into John Mellencamp’s world,” he told the Los Angeles Times earlier this summer.

“The goal was, ‘OK, you’re not walking into a concert. It’s more of a performance, like theatre,’” he added.

Contact Steven Spearie: 217-622-1788; sspearie@sj-r.com; X, twitter.com/@StevenSpearie.

This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: John Mellencamp's 2024 tour includes a stop in Springfield IL